surrey council divided on bus rapid transit, as funding remains up in the air
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conceptual illustration for the king george boulevard bus rapid transit project.
surrey council has approved translink to continue designing its bus rapid transit route to run along a major road in the city, but the question of funding still remains.
at monday’s council meeting, several councillors also expressed confusion on how to move forward with a project that has no pricetag.
“i can’t support something that i don’t have a cost for. so i think we need to wait, find out what this is going to cost,” said coun. linda annis, adding she would like to see at-grade light rail transit.
annis was not the only voice against approving bus rapid transit now, but council approved moving forward to complete the design in a five-to-four split, with only mayor brenda locke’s slate voting in favour.
king george boulevard, from whalley in the north end down to south surrey, is one of three priority corridors outlined by translink for its bus rapid transit routes — which is a limited-stop route with dedicated bus-only lanes and bus-priority traffic signals. the mayors’ council on regional transportation has also endorsed langley to haney place in maple ridge, and metrotown to the north shore as the two other priority corridors to be completed before six others that are planned.
“it’s baffling that we haven’t heard any funding announcements from either the province or the feds on anything,” denis agar, executive-director of advocacy group movement: metro vancouver transit riders, told postmedia.
“there are a few key projects that we’re kind of lagging on, and i don’t understand why.”
there are 12 stations planned for surrey, running from surrey central station to semiahmoo town centre near white rock, spanning about 19 kilometres.
the king george line is projected to reduce travel time by more than 40 per cent, with dedicated bus lanes in the middle of king george boulevard and covered stations along most of the line. so far, 30 per cent of the design is complete.
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while translink and the mayors’ council have discussed the plan, the transportation agency still has not secured any funding for the actual project.
agar said bus rapid transit is even more needed as gas prices continue to soar.
“there are so many reasons to support this,” he added. “it would just be so easy for senior government to announce funding.”
scott neuman, the city of surrey’s general manager of engineering, said translink still has no cost estimate and has only received funding from the province for the design of the king george line. translink confirmed to postmedia it is continuing to work with the government on securing funding.
coun. doug elford was another voice opposed to moving ahead. he said traffic is already an issue in surrey, adding he is not supportive of any form of transit other than an elevated design.
his fellow safe surrey coun. mandeep nagra agreed.
“i think the only solution connecting commute on king george is skytrain, and that’s the only sort of transportation that i would support,” nagra said.
locke’s councillors defended bus rapid transit by saying it will be much quicker to construct than skytrain or light rail, and also more cost effective.
according to neuman, light rail is about five times the cost of bus rapid transit, and skytrain would be about 10 times more expensive. translink has estimated each bus rapid transit line at $400 million, but that could change depending on design.
“i don’t know anybody who’s going to disagree that skytrain would be an amazing option. … if translink doesn’t have the money for (bus rapid transit, they definitely will not have the money for skytrain or (light rapid transit). in my view, this is the most realistic option,” said coun. harry bains.
“we need transit today, not 20 years from now.”
neuman said that with council’s approval of the king george design, buses could be moving residents from one end of the city to the other by the end of 2027.
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agar said that estimate is ambitious, but hopes it happens.
“what the council vote showed me is that every single councillor voted for more transit in surrey, for a big investment,” agar said.
“no one thought the canada line would be as popular as it is, but that can be the progression. something cheap, fast and easy (bus rapid transit) to demonstrate the potential, and then it puts everyone on the same page that we need skytrain or light rail as well.”
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